My.Computer.FileSystem

The My.Computer.FileSystem object provides tools for working with drives, directories, and files. The following table summarizes this object’s properties.

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Property	Description
CurrentDirectory	Gets or sets the fully qualified path to the application’s current directory.
Drives	Returns a read-only collection of DriveInfo objects describing the system’s drives. See the section “DriveInfo” earlier in this chapter for information about the Drive?Info class.
SpecialDirectories	Returns a SpecialDirectoriesProxy object that has properties giving the locations of various special directories (such as the system’s temporary directory and the user’s MyDocuments directory). See the section “My.Computer .FileSystem.SpecialDirectories” later in this chapter for more information.

The following list describes the My.Computer.FileSystem object’s methods.

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Method	Purpose
CombinePath	Combines a base path with a relative path reference and returns a properly formatted fully qualified path. For example, the following code displays the name of the directory that is the parent of the application’s current directory: MessageBox.Show( _ My.Computer.FileSystem.CombinePath( _ My.Computer.FileSystem.CurrentDirectory(), _ "..")
CopyDirectory	Copies a directory. Parameters indicate whether to overwrite existing files, whether to display a progress indicator, and what to do if the user presses Cancel during the operation.
CopyFile	Copies a file. Parameters indicate whether to overwrite existing files, whether to display a progress indicator, and what to do if the user presses Cancel during the operation.
CreateDirectory	Creates a directory. This method will create ancestor directories if necessary. For example, if the C:\Temp directory contains no subdirectories, creating C:\Temp\ Project\Data will automatically create C:\Temp\Project and C:\Temp\Project\Data.
DeleteDirectory	Deletes a directory. Parameters indicate whether to recursively delete subdirectories, prompt the user for confirmation, or move the directory into the Recycle Bin.
DeleteFile	Deletes a file. Parameters indicate whether to prompt the user for confirmation or move the file into the Recycle Bin, and what to do if the user presses Cancel while the deletion is in progress.
DirectoryExists	Returns True if a specified directory exists.
FileExists	Returns True if a specified file exists.
FindInFiles	Returns a read-only collection of strings listing files that contain a target string.
GetDirectories	Returns a string collection listing subdirectories of a given directory. Parameters tell whether to recursively search the subdirectories, and the wildcards to match.
GetDirectoryInfo	Returns a DirectoryInfo object for a directory. See the section “DirectoryInfo” earlier in this chapter for more information.
GetDriveInfo	Returns a DriveInfo object for a drive. See the section “DriveInfo” earlier in this chapter for more information.
GetFileInfo	Returns a FileInfo object for a file. See the section “FileInfo” earlier in this chapter for more information.
GetFiles	Returns a string collection holding the names of files within a directory. Parameters indicate whether the search should recursively search subdirectories, and give wildcards to match.
GetParentPath	Returns the fully qualified path of a path’s parent. For example, this returns a file’s or directory’s parent directory.
MoveDirectory	Moves a directory. Parameters indicate whether to overwrite files that have the same name in the destination directory and whether to prompt the user when such a collision occurs.
MoveFile	Moves a file. Parameters indicate whether to overwrite a file that has the same name as the file’s destination and whether to prompt the user when such a collision occurs.
OpenTextFieldParser	Opens a TextFieldParser object attached to a delimited or fixed-field file such as a log file. You can use the object to parse the file.
OpenTextFileReader	Opens a StreamReader object attached to a file. You can use the object to read the file.
OpenTextFileWriter	Opens a StreamReader object attached to a file. You can use the object to write into the file.
ReadAllBytes	Reads all of the bytes from a binary file into an array.
ReadAllText	Reads all of the text from a text file into a string.
RenameDirectory	Renames a directory within its parent directory.
RenameFile	Renames a file with its directory.
WriteAllBytes	Writes an array of bytes into a binary file. A parameter tells whether to append the data or rewrite the file.
WriteAllText	Writes a string into a text file. A parameter tells whether to append the string or rewrite the file.